Living Produce Aisle grows the greens it sells, right in the store

Vancouver’s Living Produce Aisle is a green grocer that takes the locavore concept to an unprecedented extreme, growing its products right in the store.

When the doors open this Saturday at the Gastown location, customers will be able to choose from dozens of different herbs, micro-greens and sprouts and have them cut to order right from the hydroponic cultivators.

The shop will also sell raw food smoothies, wheat grass shots and a salad created by Four Seasons hotel executive chef Ned Bell.

“We can grow between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of produce a month in 20 cultivators,” said owner and founder Tarren Wolfe, also the co-owner of Surrey-based hydroponics manufacturer Urban Cultivator. “We can get four complete crops a month of most of the micro-greens and sprouts.”

Living Produce Aisle is nestled in a 2,000-square-foot basement below a streetfront door at 66 East Cordova St. The retail space is lined with 20 hydroponic cultivators, each the size of a commercial refrigerator, roughly two metres high.

The cultivation units retail for $6,000 a piece, but Wolfe didn’t pay that much.

Wolfe created the line of herb and sprout cultivators last year by redesigning self-contained hydroponic marijuana cultivation equipment sold by his other company BC Northern Lights for use in home and commercial kitchens. Home units can be installed under a typical countertop much like a built-in dishwasher.

Wolfe projects the green grocer and café business combined could in bring in about $50,000 a month serving a health conscious public and local chefs seeking the freshest ingredients.

“Living Produce Aisle is a proof-of-concept operation for what I think can be a good franchise business or an add-on for whole foods grocery stores,” Wolfe said.

The space occupied by the store-slash-indoor farm is owned by Bill McCaig, owner of Nicli Antica Pizzeria and Vicino Pastaria, who lets the basement to Wolfe in exchange for fresh arugula and basil.

“McCaig was spending $2,000 a month for arugula and basil, so he totally went for this,” said Wolfe.

The store’s product list includes wheat grass, pea shoots, a variety of herbs and microgreens from broccoli to beets and baby lettuces.